
The Murder of Sonny Liston
Las Vegas, Heroin, and Heavyweights
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $21.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
R.C. Bray
-
By:
-
Shaun Assael
On January 5, 1971, Sonny Liston was found dead in his home - of an apparent heroin overdose. But no one close to Liston believed that his death was accidental. Digging deep into a life that Liston tried hard to hide, Shaun Assael treats the boxer's death as a cold case. The result is a riveting whodunit that evokes a glorious and grimy era of Las Vegas.
Elvis Presley was playing two shows a night at the International. Howard Hughes was running his empire from the penthouse suite of the Desert Inn. And Middle America was flocking to the Strip, transforming it from an exclusive playground for the mob to a mecca for corporate dollars. But the city was also rotting from within. Heroin was pouring over the border from Mexico, and the segregated Westside was on the cusp of a race war.
Driving through town with the top of his pink Cadillac down, Liston was the one celebrity who was unafraid to bridge the two sides of Las Vegas. Cashing in on his fading notoriety in the casinos, he was dealing drugs, working for a crime syndicate, and trying to break in to Hollywood - all with a boxer's faith that he could duck any threat, slip any punch. Heroin addiction was the only knockout blow he didn't see coming.
©2016 Shaun Assael (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...




















Sonny
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The tragic last few
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A Boxing Legends Story
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Excellent!!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Now, if you have known these tale-spinning junkies and so on, you know it is mostly spun up like cotton candy, often out of a lot of nothing. This is a land of ghosts, dead or almost dead, bathed in garish neon. My own impression is, the most probable story that fits is usually closest to the facts. Here is an intriguing story, with its dark corridors and twists, with its wild and weird risk-takers dancing (or golfing) through, but it isn't the crazy insoluble maze of the JFK murder. As with any degenerate junkie who dies with a kit nearby, I reckon the core of the story is too simple: Sonny just plain overdosed in his bedroom. He skated on the edge, from nowhere to the heights, to a crumbling place, and finally tipped over it. But that shouldn't keep you from the best tour of late 60s-early 70s degenerate (and star-studded) Vegas you can imagine.
In this desert, every fool has a flashy story ...
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really great really sad story with a lot of period characters and color
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Solid listen
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Normally he is known for possibly throwing the Ali 2nd fight.
I did not know much about Sonny
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Historically rich narrative of a particular time and place featuring dynamic individuals living the high life in and around the margins of polite society.
True crime history and sports nerds will not be disappointed.
Great read
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Good story that keeps you wondering really happened.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.